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Bloomberg
New York real estate developer Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. offered to buy a controlling stake in Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd., a unit of distressed IDB Development Ltd., according to two people familiar with the matter.
IDBD said it received a non-binding offer that values the insurer at $743 million, without identifying the bidder. Michael Alpert, the president of Ashkenazy, declined to comment on whether the company made an offer.
Argentine businessman Eduardo Elsztain, whose real estate investment company IRSA Inversiones y Representactiones SA controls the Tel Aviv-based conglomerate, has been trying to sell Clal to reduce the company’s debt load after he invested $515 million in IDBD.
IRSA shares plummeted in November when short seller Spruce Point Capital said IRSA was exposing investors to $6.7 billion in bankruptcy claims from creditors of IDBD.
The offer for Clal includes two options: a cash bid for 25 percent to 30 percent of the insurer’s issued shares, or the purchase of IDBD’s entire stake in the insurer, according to the statement.